Slovak presidency goes to government candidate

Speaker of Parliament Peter Pellegrini defeated pro-West career diplomat Ivan Korčok for the Slovak presidency in a runoff election Saturday.

With 93 percent of ballots counted, Pellegrini garnered 55 percent of the vote while Korčok received 45 percent.

In Slovakia, the president has limited powers that include appointing ambassadors, returning legislation to parliament and issuing amnesties.

But the hardball campaign waged by Pellegrini and his supporters attested to the importance that Prime Minister Robert Fico’s coalition government — which includes Pellegrini’s Hlas (Voice) party — put on controlling the presidency as well as the rest of the executive branch.

After Korčok beat him by five percentage points in the first round of the election two weeks ago, Pellegrini promised on March 24 to “maintain decency” and “not to descend into aggressive tactics” ahead of Saturday’s runoff.

But a mere two days later, Fico denounced Korčok as “a warmonger who unhesitatingly supports everything the West tells him, including dragging Slovakia into [the Russia-Ukraine] war.”

Korčok, who has previously served as Slovakia’s foreign minister as well as its permanent representative to the EU, protested that it was actually Fico’s government and parliamentary majority, not the president, that had the power to declare war under the country’s constitution.

The opposition-backed Korčok said he saw no reason to send Slovak soldiers to fight in neighboring Ukraine, but added that he supported Kyiv in its war against invading Russian forces because “Ukraine’s security increases our own security … It’s clear that if Ukraine loses the war, it brings war that much closer to our own border.”

Then it was the turn of Erik Tomáš, minister of social affairs and a member of Pellegrini’s party, who said at a March 27 press conference: “I want to tell people, seniors and all at-risk groups, that if Korčok becomes president and this government falls, you will lose all your social benefits.”

Tomáš did not explain how Korčok could cause the government to fall or what power the presidency had over social benefits, which are approved by Tomáš’ own ministry.

Speaking at the same press conference, Pellegrini harked back to the Covid-19 pandemic, which unfolded during the previous 2020-2023 government in which Korčok served as foreign minister. Also siding with pensioners, Pellegrini said that “during the pandemic, they were locked up at home … they froze the minimum pensions, on which you can barely survive, and for several years they did not increase them even by a penny.”

Tomáš then announced a one-time payment of €300 to pensioners “as compensation and recompense for all these damages,” as well as a Christmas pension bonus of €600.

Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák on March 28 announced that some 20,000 Slovak soldiers and ministry employees would be receiving a €500 spring bonus. Not to be outdone, Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok — also a member of Pellegrini’s Hlas party — announced on social media that almost 24,000 police and firefighters would be receiving a €500 bonus in their next pay packets as well.

“For sure this happened just before the second round of presidential elections because they have such respect for our armed services,” said Juraj Krupa, an MP for the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. “For sure it has nothing at all to do with election corruption.”

On April 5, a day before the final vote, members of Pellegrini’s party shared doctored images of a frail older woman embracing a man in military fatigues, with the caption: “Come out and vote. Don’t let Slovak sons and grandsons die in war.”

Blogger Jakub Goda flagged that in the original image from 2022, the soldier had been wearing a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian (i.e. not Slovak) shoulder patch, which had been photoshopped out.